The sky had darkened, but the tension between Valieon and Veridian was heavier than the clouds above.
Valieon broke the silence. "Is the war between Ignar, the Flame Tyrant… and Brontaris, the Thunder Enforcer, over?"
Veridian nodded. "Three months ago. Brontaris claimed victory. Flame Dominion has been quiet since."
Valieon looked away. "And Kael Draven…?"
Veridian raised an eyebrow. "Why are you asking about him?"
"He's someone… special to me," Valieon replied with a strange distance in his voice.
Veridian blinked, then replied carefully, "He left to train the northern troops. He'll be back in three months."
Valieon simply nodded. "Good to know."
He turned.
"Wait," Veridian said. "Where are you going? You just returned after seven years."
Valieon's footsteps didn't stop. "To the Void of Nexus."
Veridian stepped forward in alarm. "That cursed realme? That place is broken. Even the laws of time and reality collapse there."
Valieon paused only for a moment. "That's what they want you to believe."
"They? Who?" Veridian asked, confused.
Valieon looked over his shoulder, his eyes sharp as blades. "The gods."
And without another word, he vanished into the misty horizon.
---
Two Days Later…
Valieon passed through the wrath of Storm Citadel, where the skies wept lightning, and crossed the ancient gates of Terra Stronghold, where even silence had weight.
Eight hours beyond, everything changed.
The sky turned a deep, haunting violet.
The air thickened with forgotten energy.
The wind carried whispers from a time that didn't exist anymore.
The Void of Nexus.
Once called Nexus Realme, the Realm of Spirit and Time.
A paradise beyond imagination.
Once, its skies glowed like molten crystal.
Its rivers flowed with life essence.
Its meadows whispered in harmony with the stars.
It was heaven itself—a place where reality bent to joy, where life bloomed beyond the cycle of death.
But that was before the gods destroyed it.
Before they turned it into an exile of broken time, poisoned by betrayal, sealed from the realms forever.
Now, the grass shimmered in eerie shades of blue.
The trees twisted unnaturally, like they remembered beauty but forgot its shape.
The animals… monstrous. Hostile. Grotesque.
Not even Valieon, whose soul once overflowed with love for all creatures, could stomach the sight of them.
But he pressed on.
The forest grew darker. The deeper he went, the more unstable the world became. He could hear voices—his own, Draven's, Zephyr's—all out of sync, like echoes from timelines that never existed.
Then—
A deafening roar.
The forest fell silent.
The ground trembled.
A colossal dragon, stitched together by toxic breath and venomous scales, emerged from the blackened ridge. So vast it could devour the Flame Dominion whole.
Its wings blotted out the already dying light.
Its eyes blazed with ancient wrath.
It stared at Valieon not as prey, but as a threat.
And yet—
Valieon didn't blink.
He didn't move.
He slowly exhaled.
His aura ignited—no longer void, but a violent storm of violet energy. It twisted like a galaxy around him, each strand humming with forgotten power.
He stepped forward, calmly… as if the world hadn't just ended in front of him.
His hands shifted. His feet spread wide.
A stance from a time before time.
His voice—quiet, cold, and unshaken—
"Orbit… Retaliation."